A New Year’s Resolution: Commit to Working Smarter

As if by magic, it’s almost time again for the New Year to tick by, and for the annual run of New Year’s resolutions to be made.

While the upheaval and unpredictability of 2020 has shown that it’s not always possible to plan and predict effectively for the upcoming year, there are nonetheless some real benefits to making New Year’s resolutions – including the simple psychological reality that we all need a “fresh start” from time to time.

Well, here’s a New Year’s resolution for you to commit to: working smarter.

Whether “working smart” in your case means investigating how AMI Imaging provides document scanning services, or simply being better with your time management, here are a few reasons why “working smart” is something that everyone should focus on going forward.

Inefficiency and redundant work are going to be increasingly punished as AI and automation advance

The writer and computer scientist Cal Newport has had a lot of success in recent years with his books on productivity. One of his most popular books has been “Deep Work,” In it, Newport argues – convincingly – that it’s going to be increasingly important for the average worker to engage in deep, focused, skilled work, as AI and automation advance and grow in sophistication.

The simple truth is that inefficiency and redundant work – like spending several hours of your day dealing with your email inbox – are going to be punished and scrutinised more and more as those sorts of mundane tasks can be increasingly passed off to machines.

“Working smart,” will therefore likely be essential for putting your best foot forward and making yourself indispensable.

It’s possible to achieve success without completely sacrificing personal well-being and balance

There is a certain “brute force” approach to professional success that tends to be popular among certain entrepreneurs in particular – where “grind” and “grit” are emphasised first and foremost, and where it is implied that you need to sleep as little as possible, and work the longest hours you possibly can, if you want to “make it.”

Contrary to this, however, there is actually research on workplace productivity which shows that people who routinely take their full annual vacation allowance off are actually more productive than those who don’t – and plenty of successful people manage to wear multiple hats, and juggle professional responsibilities with interesting personal lives.

It is possible to achieve success without completely sacrificing personal well-being and balance. But working smart is important in order to facilitate this.

Leveraging your resources in the most effective way is a fundamental part of good entrepreneurship

To a large extent, being a good and effective entrepreneur can be boiled down to smartly and effectively managing and leveraging resources, so that those resources generate the most significant outcomes.

Working smart can be thought of as the art of proper management – and helping your business to go as far as possible, on as little as possible. This is also known as “efficiency.”